The tune is still played by Scottish regiments as their reveille.
It is a satirical melody which commemorates the 1745 Jacobite rebellion when Sir John Cope
and the English were defeated by the Scots under Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Prestonpans,
on the 22nd of September, 1745.

In 1745, when Prince Charles landed in the highlands, Sir John was commander in chief in Scotland and
he bravely resolved to march into the Highlands to oppose him.
Cope was ill-prepared and outnumbered, and soon retreated in the face of opposition in order to regroup.
The rebels meanwhile secured Edinburgh and when they learned that Cope was marching
to the city’s relief they marched to meet him.

Both armies neared each other at Prestonpans
late in the day, separated by marshy ground, and it was resolved to wait until the next day
to begin hostilities. During the night however, Prince Charlie was apprised by the wily Jacobite
commander Lord George Murray that a passage or ford was to be had through the marshy ground
and the rebels resolved to filter through at night and take the English forces by surprise in the morning.
This was effected and the surprise was complete. Half awake and utterly bewildered,
Cope’s troops could make no effective resistance, and in a few minutes were in headlong flight.

"Johnny Cope" music is probably a version of the older tune "Fye to the Coals in the Morning".
It also has a resemblance with the Scots tune "Balquhidder Lasses" and the Irish Hornpipe
tune "The Drunken Sailor”.

The song lyrics were written by Adam Skirving, an extremely literate East Lothian farmer
whose fields were tramped by the passage of the armies on the day of the battle.
The song gives an account from the Jacobite viewpoint of the Battle of Prestonpans.
The song includes several apocryphal incidents, including challenges conveyed by letters between
Cope and his rival Bonnie Prince Charlie, as well as exaggerated accounts of Cope’s cowardice.
It also includes an account of him fleeing from the battle all the way back to Berwick, being
the messenger of his own defeat, which is also doubtful. The battle, however, was a decisive victory
for the Jacobites.
Cope was not really at fault for the loss, given the circumstances. He was later found not negligent
at a court-martial,
given that he had done all correctly, but was outflanked by the surprise dawn attack
on a flank he had thought secured by the marsh.

JOHNNY COPE LYRICS

It has been recorded by The Corries, Natalie MacMaster, The Tannahill Weavers, and Planxty.
These words were written in 1745 by Adam Skirving (1719-1803).